Auto-generated transcript:
Alhamdulillah, Rabbi Alameen, wassalatu wassalamu ala ashrafil anbiya’i wal mursaleen, Muhammadur Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam, tasliman kaseeran kaseera. Fama ba’du. My brothers, sisters, elders, we are talking about what the significance of the incident of Al-Isra wal-Miraj and what do we need to do with regard to it. Is it simply something which happened historically, we know about it, alhamdulillah, good for Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi wa sallam, or does it have any bearing on your and my life? And as I mentioned to you, the first bearing it has on your and my life is that thanks to this incident, this was the time when Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala opened the doors of His darwar, of His presence for all of us. Thanks to Muhammad Sallallahu Alaihi wa ala alihi wa sahbihi wa sallam. When Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi wa sallam told the Quraysh about his journey, he first told Umba Iman radiallahu anha, and as soon as she heard it, she said to him, Ya Rasulullah, don’t tell anybody else. Don’t tell this to anyone else. Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi wa sallam said, I have been commanded to say to the people. And when he said to the people, some people he said too and then they started laughing, then suddenly somebody went and informed Abu Jail and Abu Jail came running. And they asked him, tell me the story. And Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi wa sallam told him the whole story. So Abu Jail said, look, I am going to bring some other people here. Will you tell the same story or will you change it? Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi wa sallam said, this is the truth. What is there to change? There is nothing to change. I will tell the same story. And Abu Jail Sallallahu Alaihi wa sallam was thinking maybe Abu Jail’s heart is coming towards Islam. So Abu Jail now brings a whole bunch of people and he says, tell the story. Rasulullah Sallallahu Alaihi wa sallam tells the story and the people are laughing and they are falling all over themselves and mocking him. Then he went from here to there and some of the Muslims who were weak in faith, they apostated, they left Islam. Abu Jail said, well, you know, he has destroyed his own credibility, khalas. And that time somebody went to Abu Bakr as Siddique Khilafat-ul-Alam. He was not there in this whole group. He was at home. Somebody went to him. They said, you know what your friend is saying? Abu Bakr as Siddique Khilafat-ul-Alam said, what is he saying? So the man told him this story. He said, this is what he is saying. He said, he went from Mecca to Jerusalem and seven heavens and back and this and that. Abu Bakr as Siddique Khilafat-ul-Alam’s statement, one line, his statement is today and from that day, the standard on which every hadith of Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam is judged. When you want to check the authenticity of the hadith, it is judged on this standard. He said, if he said it, I believe. Think about this. He didn’t simply say, yes, I believe. No. He said, if he said it, I believe. So when we authenticate a hadith, what do you authenticate? Did he say it? You don’t have to say, well, you know, he may have said it, but does it sound logical? Does it make sense to me? Is it scientifically possible according to whatever science I know today? Is it this? Is it that? No. So obviously, they asked him the same question. Believe it or not, nothing new. Anytime somebody thinks they discovered something, I tell them to read history. You don’t discover anything. Everything is known. I didn’t say it. I just started to say it 2000 years ago. So the man asked him, he said, how can you believe this? Does it make sense to you? How does somebody go from Mecca to Jerusalem and this and that and what not? I mean, does it make any sense? Is it possible? How do you believe this? Abu Bakr Asidya Khilad-al-Alam laughed. He said, we believe even more than this. This is nothing. He said, we believe in Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala. Have you seen him? He said, we believe in the Day of Judgment. Have you seen that? He said, we believe in Jannah wa Jahannam. Have you seen that? He said, what is this? If you believe in Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala, Jalla Jalaluhu, who is the creator of the heavens and the earth and everything in between and whatever it contains, how difficult is it for Allah to take one human being to wherever he wanted to take him? The root is that. Do you believe in Allah? The root is not how did this journey happen and can I explain it logically and so on. Very interestingly, there is a book called Hyper Space, read it, by Michio Kaku, who’s a physicist, very famous, lives in America. When I read the book, I understood two things. One is, I mean, I believe it, I believe it, so I don’t need Hyper Space to believe this. But I’m saying, this, Ayat of Suratul Isra and the Ayat of Suratul Naba, wa futi hati sama ufakanat abu aba. You’re interested someday come and sit here and I will, maybe I’ll do a khatira on this. Kujto shao karo yaar. Adhi wa futbal ka shao kai, kute ka shao kai, billi ka shao kai, Allah ka shao kani, nabi ka shao kani, kujto shao karo yaar. Those of you who didn’t understand, then learn Urdu. So he said, Siddhi Akbar Radhe Al Anu, he said, we believe in all of the, we believe in much more than this. What is the difficulty? So as I said, two important things. First question, do we believe in Allah and His power to do anything? Seriously, we have to ask ourselves this question. Today people, all the time people are saying, now what will happen? Now what will happen? Government will change, government is changing. Inna li laahi wa inna li laa hajiyoo. What will happen? Only what Allah wills will happen. Nothing else can happen. So what must I do? Root in Allah, go to Allah, turn to Allah. Never let anything else supersede the hukam of Allah. If Allah said, do something, do that, whatever the rest of the world says. Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala went to the extent of telling the children to disobey parents, if they tell them to go against the orders of Allah. Allah said, falatutihuma, do not obey them. Who? The parents. Who Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala said, you must obey parents to such an extent that you should not even say oof to them. But if they tell you to disobey Allah, disobey the parents. The hukam of Allah, anyone who wants the ayah references, come to me, I’ll give it to you. What will happen? Only what Allah wants will happen. Second question to ask ourselves is, do we believe in our meeting with Allah? Seriously, believe. And believe means it must be expressed in actions. There’s no sense of saying I believe and then my actions are showing something else. And number three, are we willing to show this belief and our allegiance to Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala by honoring the gift that Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala sent to us through His messenger Muhammad Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wasallam, which is as-salah. May Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala help us to stay on the right path because today we see Muslims arguing about Islam and marriage in different ways, some bordering on denial and kufr or trying to explain it away in terms of our limited understanding. I don’t see any reason why should we do that. And that’s why I call this a test of belief of some people. And my answer is very simple, do you believe in Allah? Start from there. If you believe in Allah, do you believe that He can do whatever He wants? Do you believe that He created all natural laws and He can change whichever He wants? Then what’s the belief problem of believing that Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wasallam was taken physically on this journey of Isra wal Mi’raj, not in hidden dreams, this is not a concept, not imagination, physically He was taken. What’s the problem? My brothers and sisters, remember it’s a question of aqeedah and to deny Isra wal Mi’raj is kufr. So let’s take the position of Abukhara Siddique radha al-anu and say, if He said it, I believe. How it happened is not my problem. I don’t need to answer that question, either for myself or for anybody else. You want to know how it happens? Wait till you meet Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala and ask Him. He sallallahu alaihi wasallam said it and his rab also said it and so I believe. There is no higher standard of evidence or proof than the word of Allah and the word of His nabi alaihi salat bursalat. The second test is about salah. Some people ask how should we celebrate Al-Isra wal Mi’raj? Celebrate it the way that Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam celebrated it. By making sure that you never miss a salah. That you never miss a false salah. Celebrating Al-Isra wal Mi’raj, one day you have a function, you sit down, you talk about the story, Alhamdulillah, you sing some anasheed, no problem. If you don’t do that, also no problem. If you do that and make this into a farth and say this must be done, then there is a big problem. Major, major problem. You want to do it, do it. Khalas. Don’t dump it on somebody’s head. But if you leave salah, that is the biggest problem. The way to celebrate Al-Isra wal Mi’raj, the way Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam celebrated it, was never to miss salah. He never missed his salah. He prayed without fail even until his last day when he had to be brought to the masjid on his insistence because he didn’t need to do that. He had a reason. If he had said I will pray at home, he had a reason. But no, he had to be brought to the masjid with two people supporting him. He never left salah ever for any reason. And that is the biggest celebration of Al-Isra wal Mi’raj which is to hold on to the gift of salah. Some hadiths to support. Muraidah radiallahu anhu reported in Sunan tiramidhi, Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said, the covenant that differentiates between us and them, meaning people who are not Muslim, is the salah. So whoever abandons it has committed disbelief. Al-ahadu alladhi baynana wa baynahum as-salah, fa man aradaha faqad kafara awka maqala alayhi salatuhu s-salam. In hadiths reported by Jabi radiallahu anhu in Muslim Sharif, Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said, verily between a man and idolatry and disbelief is abandoning the prayer. You might say what is the idolatry, what is the faith, the shirk, the shirk is the man is using himself as the idol, he is worshipping his own desire, he is worshipping his own false theories, and he is not praying, therefore he is committing shirk. Abu Dardar al-Ansar radiallahu anhu in a hadith in Musnad ibn Muhammad, in Ibn Majah and Bayhaqi, he said, my friend Muhammad sallallahu alaihi wa sallam gave me the following advice. He said, even if you are chopped up and burnt, do not associate partners with Allah and do not miss your fard salah deliberately. Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala will remove his protection from a person who misses his fard salah deliberately. Let me repeat that, Allah will remove his protection from the one who misses his fard salah deliberately. Today we say I can’t pray because I have to do this work, I can’t pray because I have to, you want to do the work without the protection of Allah? Go ahead, do it. Abdullah bin Qurt radiallahu anhu said in a hadith in Tabarani, Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said, on the day of judgment a slave will be questioned about his prayers first. If his prayers are good, his other deeds will be good also. If his prayers are bad, his other deeds will be bad also. Rasulullah sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said in the final hadith which I want to quote today, Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala, Nabi Salih sallallahu alaihi wa sallam said, Allah has obligated five prayers. Whoever excellently performs his wujud, prays them at their proper time, completes his rukuh and sujood properly, and has khushu concentration, has a promise from Allah that he will forgive him. Five for salah, pray at their time, properly to the best of our ability, Allah promised to forgive that person. Just think about that. Promise to forgive him. And whoever does not do that, does not have this promise from Allah. He may forgive him or he may not forgive. And this is in Musnad Mahmud in Muwatt al-Malik and Abu Dawur. In conclusion, I remind myself and you that salah is an honor. It is not a burden. It’s not a tedious duty. It is our bond with Allah subhanahu wa ta’ala, which we reiterate, salah is a tool, it is a weapon, it is the greatest resource we have. Let us honor it and use it and be among the musalleen, among those people who pray.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (10.5MB) | Embed
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | Email | Youtube Music | RSS